Spacing sleeve for nails



p 5, 1939- F. c JOHNSON 2,171,877

SPACING SLEEVE FOR NAILS Filed Dec. 12, 1938 fJ2 zien Zor Fred C. Jo/zm on 13y z'aflliozwe ya Patented Sept. 5, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1 Claim.

My invention relates to nails such as used by carpenters, and provides an extremely simple and highly efilcient low cost spacing sleeve which particularly adapts ordinary nails tobe used in the building of temporary structures such as scaffolding, false-work, concrete forms, and the like, and which adapts the nails to be readily withdrawn without damage thereto or to the woodwork.

19 The invention consists of the novel construction and arrangement of parts hereinafter described and defined in the claim.

Referring to the drawing which illustrates the invention and wherein like characters indicate like parts throughout the several views:

Fig. l is a perspective showing an ordinary nail;

Fig. 2 is a perspective showing one of the spacing sleeves;

Fig. 3 is a view partly in side elevation and partly in section showing a nail with sleeve driven into woodwork, and illustrating the application of a hammer to withdraw the nail;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view showing the nail and sleeve on a larger scale than in Fig. 3, and showing in section part of the woodwork; and

Fig. 5 shows a plurality of spacing sleeves nested together in compact arrangement.

The nail illustrated is an ordinary wire nail and is indicated by the numeral 6; and the spacing sleeve is indicated by the numeral 1. This spacing sleeve is a thin sheet metal shell in the form of a truncated cone, the neck or small end of which is large enough to permit the body of the nail to be passed freely therethrough, but is of less diameter than the head of the nail. The base of the sleeve is of very much greater diameter than the neck.

In Figs. 3 and 4 the woodwork consists of two 40 boards or planks 8 and 9 through which the nail is driven until it is stopped by the engagement of the head of the nail with the neck or contracted outer end of the spacing sleeve. When the nail is thus driven, the expanded base of the sleeve will be pressed against and more or less into the adjacent board or plank and will grip and reinforce the woodwork around the hole produced by the nail, and greatly assist in preventing splitting of the woodwork. When the nail is to 50 be withdrawn, the head of the nail may be engaged by the claws of a hammer such as that indicated by the numeral I0.

The head of an ordinary nail is always of much greater diameter than the body of the nail and, hence, spacing sleeves of any size or diameter may be used in connection with nails that vary considerably in size. This is important because nails of different sizes usually carried by a carpenter may be used in connection with one size of sleeve. Of course, it will require the sleeves to be made in difierent sizes to cover the whole 0 range of nails used by carpenters.

The spacing sleeves of thin sheet metal, preferably steel, are adapted to be stamped from metal sheets. These operations, when performed by automatic machines, will produce the sleeves 15 at very small cost. The sleeves are of such truncated conical form that they may be nested together, as shown in Fig. 5, and, hence, a large number thereof may be packed in a small box for the purpose of sale or shipment. The outwardly tapered form of the sleeve adapts the claws of a-hammer to be readily applied and properly engaged with the head of the nail.

While the device is especially adapted for use in connection with nails that are temporarily applied, it may be used in many cases where the 25 nails will be permanently applied and where, for one reason or another, the projecting heads of the nails with ornamental appearance will be desirable.

It is import-ant that the spacing sleeve be a thin sheet metal shell so that the expanded end thereof will be thin and quite sharp and adapted to be pressed somewhat into the body of the wooden structure. Also, it is important that the r outer or contracted end of the sleeve be thin so that even if this contracted end does not closely engage the body of the nail, its outer portion will be radially inward of the rim of the nail head.

What I claim is:

A spacing sleeve for nails in the form of a thin sheet metal shell of truncated conical form adapted .to be applied to a nail with the contracted end engaged with the head of the nail and with the expanded base engaged with the woodwork into which the nail is driven, the shell of said conical sleeve being of constant thickness and the exterior and interior thereof having the same taper adapting a plurality of the said sleeves to be nested closely together.

FRED C. JOHNSON. 

